An Albanian Interlude
by The Carnivorous Muffin
Summary: Lily's Albanian warfare is briefly interrupted when Hermione Granger shows up wandering around the battlefield looking for her. Side fic to "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus"


**Author's Note: To those of you about to read this I warn that this is a side fic to "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus" and as such if you haven't read a sizable portion of that, then you'll be fairly confused about what's going on. Also to those of you who have read that fic this is NON CANON to the main fic, for obvious reasons.**

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To be fair Lily had known that Hermione Granger was wandering around Albania in the middle of a dark creature revolution for a few weeks now; she just hadn't been sure what she was going to do about it.

For one thing she wasn't even sure why Hermione Granger was in Albania in the first place.

The last she'd seen of Hermione was in the Leaky Cauldron when she'd left Hogwarts, and that had been a few months ago, she'd assumed Hermione would stay in England and… well.. stay in England.

Lily had thought about Hermione, but not really about Hermione's plans. If anything she'd just thought Hermione would go back to Hogwarts along with everyone else. Now, Lily did think about the fact that Hermione had been horrifically traumatized by Quirrell on Christmas but she hadn't thought that would bring her to Albania of all places.

It'd been Frank who'd first told her.

"Um, boss, apparently there's a little British girl running around the country who says she wants to speak with you." Frank had had the decency to wait until the battle was over, the village burned, and had given her a bit of time to toe through the ruins and look for survivors who could benefit from the mystical kool-aid that the stone produced. So far though she hadn't been having any luck, they'd been too close to the front lines, and those who hadn't had evacuated to the capital or else out of the country entirely before the troops even arrived.

A.L.F's reputation preceded it.

"A little British girl?" Lily asked not really looking at Frank yet, or truly concerned, if anything just vaguely interested but still thinking about a lack of test subjects. The last thing she wanted was to create another Quirrell with the stone, so far nobody had had a reaction like that one, but still.

"Yes, by the name of Hermione Granger." Frank said, and that was when Lily started paying attention, turning her head towards Frank and stopping everything to just stare at him.

"What?"

"Hermione Jean Granger, a second year Hogwarts student, whose muggle existence has been wiped out by the ministry and whose parents have forgotten her entirely, or so she claimed in London at our office has arrived in Albania with the intent of finding you." Frank summarized and he was looking at her in a way that he rarely did, like he was trying to figure out exactly what she was doing or what she intended to do about this.

"Really?" Was all she could think to ask before adding, "Wait, is she looking for Ellie Potter or Lily Riddle?"

Not that it mattered that much in Albania, Lily had forgotten the hair dye more than once and showed up with the red hair, it wasn't as big of a deal as it was in Britain as Ellie Potter wasn't as much of a thing in the East.

"Perhaps both, I wasn't told, only that she didn't take no for an answer in London when she barged in past the doorman Oz and demanded to see you. And when told that Lily Riddle, and perhaps Eleanor Potter, were both in Albania she did not stop at that either." Frank was looking at her like he expected her to say something about this, like it was her problem that Hermione Granger had done something as stupidly suicidal as showing up in Albania.

This was no place for children, even more so than Squirrel's office.

That and Lily didn't want Hermione here, she didn't want anything from Hogwarts here, that was part of the reason she had come in the first place. Hogwarts didn't belong here, shouldn't belong here, and Hermione Granger should have known better.

"What does she want?"

"Her parents memories restored, is what she said." Frank said with a stiff shrug before finally giving his own opinion, "It's hardly my business but you should tell her to go home."

Coming from a vampire who had slaughtered aurors and debtors alike that was a bit rich, Wizard Lenin certainly agreed with her on that, but she didn't say this instead scowled towards the horizon where Hermione Granger was no doubt out wandering amongst the looting and burning and death.

Just what did she think she would find out here anyway?

Lily should tell her to go home, but that would require speaking to her in person, and Lily had left Hermione in that pub for a reason. Lily shoved her hands deep into her pockets, scowling into the wind and considering her options, and finally grudgingly said, "You tell her, Frank."

Frank didn't look that happy about that order, probably because he didn't actually know exactly where Hermione Granger was, but he'd been the one to bring her the news so he could deal with the consequences.

"And if she doesn't listen?" Frank asked, eyes narrowed.

"She's twelve, Frank, just drag her out of the country kicking and screaming and dump her in Hungary or something."

"Hungary doesn't border Albania…" Frank muttered looking more than a little irate, "I assume you mean Greece."

"Sure, Greece, whatever." Just so long as Hermione Granger wasn't wandering around Albania looking for Lily while in great danger of getting her head blown off.

Frank looked as if he was about to leave in that moment, but he paused, considered her again and looked like he was going to ask something that he had no right asking. Something about Eleanor Potter, Hogwarts, and just why she had been so keen on leaving in the middle of winter. He didn't though, he just stared, and then stiffly walked away saying over his shoulder, "I'll keep in contact but do let me know where you are so I can find my way back, not that it's not difficult to follow the trail of destruction."

So for the next few weeks they approached the capitol, Lily sending letters periodically to Frank and Frank sending them back, and time passed for a few weeks almost allowing Lily to forget that Hermione was wandering around Albania. But that was only for a few weeks, because soon enough, Hermione appeared in the flesh.

When she did arrive in camp, vampires raising their eyebrows at the sight of this little girl striding in at sunrise, she looked like she had crawled through a warzone. Which technically Hermione had crawled through a warzone but the metaphor still held beyond the literal sense.

It also looked like she'd given Frank a run for his money, or Frank wanted it to look like she'd given him a run for his money, he'd probably just agreed to take her to Lily if it would get her to leave. Albania was making Frank far too independent, he started getting ideas about what Lily should and should be doing regarding Hogwarts, which really wasn't his problem. That or he was going incredibly soft when it came to little girls, it still wasn't his place, if she was Wizard Lenin he'd regret even being born at this point.

Either way Frank was standing behind her looking more than a little worn and still giving Lily that expression like she should be doing something about this. Like this is what you get if you go off to Hogwarts and gallivant with the children and she should be taking responsibility for her actions.

Which she did, originally, she'd taken Hermione out of Hogwarts and someplace safer. Why was it Lily's problem that Hermione chose to endanger herself after that? Why did Lily even have the nagging suspicion that she should agree with Frank on this, that this was somehow her responsibility.

"Didn't like Greece?" Lily asked and Hermione almost flinched at the sound of her voice, she kept staring at Lily, like she was trying to see something if she looked close enough. She seemed at a complete loss for words, like she had travelled all this way and now that she was here had no idea how to actually talk.

Lily sighed motioning for Frank and the others who were loitering to vamoose and go do other vampire things somewhere else. For a moment they just sat there, then she turned on the Wizard Lenin impression, or else known as Lily Riddle on the front lines and they quickly moved in the opposite direction. After the last was gone she sat on the ground and motioned for Hermione to do the same, but Hermione just kept standing and staring, which was beginning to become more than a little uncomfortable.

She looked empty, like something had been sucked out of her, was still continuing to drip out of her at regular intervals; like a faucet you could never quite turn off. Her shoulders were slumped, sagging, like the kindling had all gone out of her now that she had finally reached her goal. She'd burned all she had just getting here, just getting to this moment, but she still refused to sit.

It was not poignant, but something tapped at Lily's heart when she looked at Hermione. She didn't always like Hermione but to see her reduced to this, her hands might be unbroken but something else had broken that night or else in between that night and now. Lily didn't like meeting her like this, outside of Hogwarts, outside of their roles of Ellie Potter and Hermione Granger, and she didn't like the way Hermione was looking at her now.

There were just so very many things about this situation that she didn't like.

Finally, Lily just asked, "Hermione, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

"How can you possibly ask me that?" Hermione replied, her voice cracking and worn, and she continued, "I came all this way, so far, and that's all you can say to me?"

Lily hadn't asked her to come all this way, hadn't even been told she was coming all this way, was she supposed to be grateful about this?

"You came all this way?" Lily repeated dully, "Is that supposed to impress me? You're not supposed to be here, Hermione Jean Granger, surely you must have realized that by now."

Hermione flinched, but still stood her ground, emotion sparking into life in her eyes. It was a little obnoxious, considering it was Lily who was so inconvenienced but it was better than the empty look she'd started with.

"I didn't come here to impress you, Ellie!" She shouted looking insulted by the mere thought of it, which was a familiar sentiment for Hermione, Hermione never wanted to be doing things for Ellie's benefit.

"Then why are you here?"

For a moment Hermione didn't say anything, then she sat slowly, her eyes never leaving Lily's. Finally she started, "Did you know Quirrell, Voldemort, erased my parent's memories of me?"

Lily didn't say anything about this one way or another, Quirrell had been a busy beaver that night, and she distantly remembered him mentioning something about Hermione's family and how she'd kidnapped her but Lily had been a little caught up in the moment.

"Well he did," Hermione continued when Lily didn't respond, "And it turns out he's very good at it. Whatever he did couldn't be undone, not by the ministry, not by Saint Mungo's, not even by Albus Dumbledore… They couldn't get the memories back, they couldn't implant memories, and eventually the ministry decided that they couldn't waste any more time on muggleborns while Ellie Potter was missing. So they decided to make the records match, other people's memories match, and now Hermione Jean Granger doesn't exist anymore."

Hermione fell silent for a moment, as if waiting for Lily to interrupt, but Lily didn't say anything. There wasn't much she could say, this wasn't her story, and she hadn't been there for it. She did wish though, whenever she happened to think about it, that it hadn't ended like that.

"Dumbledore gave up too, right when the ministry did, and instead everyone's hunting down Quirrell when he's dead and looking for you when you've been right here the whole time… But that's not why I'm here, Ellie."

Hermione took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and looked Lily straight in the eye, "Ellie, you're not human, are you?"

Lily didn't respond, because there wasn't any doubt in Hermione's eyes, this was a conclusion she'd drawn a long time ago. Probably that night months ago, when she'd seen Lily rise from the dead and stab Quirrell through the heart.

"You can do what Albus Dumbledore, what the ministry, what anyone else can't do… You can fix them, I know you can, so… Ellie, please, help me."

Well, that was certainly new.

True no one had ever known the full extent of her powers before on the normal plane, the only people who really knew were Wizard Lenin, and then Death and neither had ever looked at her like that or asked her to do something like that.

All Lily could think, looking across at Hermione Granger, was that this must be what Jesus Christ felt like and the thought of it left a sour taste in her mouth.

She wondered how he felt about all of that at the time, it must have made him feel the same way, because she couldn't imagine some other way to feel as she stared across at Hermione Granger.

She didn't know if she'd do it, certainly she wouldn't do it now, but all the same she knew only one thing.

That Hermione Granger should never have come to Albania.

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 **Author's Note: For the 2100th review of "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus" by 97chaoscat who asked for a fic where Hermione gets swept up in the Albanian revolution. Now, this could have been a bit longer, but for whatever reason it was just so much easier to look at this from Lily's perspective than Hermione's. So here we are.**

 **Thanks for reading feel free to review, I like reviews.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**


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